SECTION THREE - THE SIX STAGES OF DISCIPLESHIP - Part 2

This is the opportunity which
is held out today before the aspirants and probationary disciples. This effort
might be termed an externalisation of the Ashram. You have been told that it is
the intention of the Hierarchy to restore the Mysteries on earth. This is the
first step towards that objective. If this embryonic externalisation succeeds
in functioning and if those participating in this new effort manage to work
with unity, love and understanding, and if this proves so strong as to
withstand all disintegrating forces, then it may be possible later to increase
the membership, power and size of any Ashram. [696] This
lies entirely in the hands of the group. Every new person who is put in touch
with the Ashram becomes a definite responsibility. The work of integration and
of absorption lies with the Ashram and not with the individual. This is not
easily apparent until disciples are accepted and integral parts of the Ashram.
Such disciples constitute a definite problem.

The question now arises: How
does a Master form and organise His Ashram or inner group of which the
personnel is provided from the outer group of aspirants? It must surely be
apparent to you that a Master, in forming His Ashram, proceeds as automatically
as does the Creator. He meditates; He visualises; He speaks and that which He
seeks to create and to materialise (in line with the hierarchical Plan) begins
to take form. By the power of His focussed and directed thought, He attracts to
Him those whose type of mind synchronises with His, because of ray, karmic
relationships, point in evolution and love for humanity. In the words focus
and direction lie the key to any technique or method of contributing to
what I might here call the reservoir of thought which is an Ashram. It is a
sustained focus, plus a dynamic direction which makes this reservoir of thought
contributory to world service and creatively effective. The important thing for
an accepted disciple to grasp is what the Master is seeking to accomplish
through the medium of His group. This entails, finally, the enquiry, in the
mind of the disciple, as to whether he thinks, focusses and works along lines
similar to that of the Master. How close is the disciple to the Master's
thoughts? The Master is prevented by occult law from using any pressure or
power in the effort to swing the minds of those whom He is influencing into
unison with His. He may not impose His will upon the disciple; His
desires, aspirations and wishes must not be the enforced directing agency in
the lives of those with whom He is in touch. He may impress their minds with
what He feels is needed in periods of world crisis. He can express to them what
He feels should be done. But it remains for the disciple to decide and prove.
Disciples are in a Master's group because of similarity of ideas, even though
they sense and express those ideas far less clearly than He does and see the
vision as through a glass darkly. But their innate convictions are [697] basically the same and their task is to discover the
points of contact, the analogous idealism for the group effort and then to
submerge their entire individual lives and activities in the recognised effort.
Behind this effort stands the Master—an initiating and distributing centre of
power.

Every Ashram or inner group
is essentially a reservoir of thought and that reservoir has for its spring or
source, the ideas, dreams, vision and aspiration of the Master. This is
impulsed by His monadic potency, influenced by the One Who is His Master and
developed and fed by His experience, unfolded as His wisdom grew and His
capacity to further the hierarchical Plan had been dedicated, used and
increased. Then it becomes a clear pool of thought, augmented and fed from the
spring of many lives, from the pure vision and consecrated dreams of many
disciples.

To this reservoir of pure
thought, every pledged disciple is asked to make his contribution and, if he
can do so, it will enable the Ashram to meet the need and help every aspirant
to pass off the Probationary Path on to the Path of Accepted Discipleship.
Every centre or focus of power has a definite sphere of influence and a true, active
Ashram is a positive force within the centre which we call humanity.

The disciple now naturally
and rightly questions how thought power and spiritual instinct are related, how
they can work constructively and how their interdependence demonstrates. I
wonder how I can make the idea clear to you? Let me first call your attention
to the fact that it is instinct which leads a disciple to respond to a Master's
call or note, to His vibration and to His group. Instinct, in its early stages,
is the name given to the response of the material mechanism to its environing
material world—the three worlds of human evolution. Later, upon the
evolutionary ladder, the mind appears as an interpreting agency and the nature
of the mechanism and of the environment is slowly understood. The relationships
become clarified. Spiritual instinct is the capacity of the soul to register
contact with the Hierarchy of which the soul is inherently a part, just as in
the body a man's mechanical, instinctual responses, reactions and reflexes are
an integral part of the material mechanism. In the case of the spiritual
instincts, [698]
it is the intuition which interprets
and illumines the mind. The power of thought as employed in the work of the
Ashram is dependent upon the power of the disciple to focus and raise the
conscious mind, to contact the soul and evoke the intuition. When that has been
successfully done, then comes the unison of the three factors: mental
illumination, soul impulse and intuitive perception. This triple combination
will produce that type of thought which will be effective in activity,
productive of the Plan, conducive to selflessness and motivated by love.

According to the ability of
the group, as a whole, to function under the impetus of the spiritual instinct
will be the success of the Master to carry out His plans through the medium of
the group. Under divine law, He may not work alone; He cannot work alone. He
can inspire, teach, ask for cooperation and give guidance as to the needed
work. Beyond that, no Master may go. In this world cycle, the work of the
Hierarchy is conditioned by the disciples, and they can well understand,
therefore, why the last fetter cast off by a Master is irritation! No initiate
can form a true Ashram until all capacity to misunderstand, to express
irritation and to criticise has vanished. The power of thought of a Master, if
misused, could be a potent destructive force. He must be able to trust Himself
before His Ashram can run on right lines and with safety.

In this work of assembling
the necessary thought power for constructive work, the etheric web is
definitely involved. It leads then to a reorganisation of the web. Academic
explanations do not help the student to understand this. When the mind (the
instrument of thought) is the vehicle of soul life, soul light and soul love,
and the etheric web is responsive to the inflow of energy from the mind, then
the reorganisation of the individual etheric web takes place. The individual
etheric body is only a part, an aspect, of the etheric web of humanity; the
steady reorganisation of the many parts leads to a transformation of the whole,
when enough time has elapsed.

The medium through which this
takes place is the Mind. The mind creates or formulates those
thoughtforms (or embodied energies) which express, upon the mental plane, the
measure of the disciple's understanding of the Plan, and his [699] ability to convey the embodied mental energy to the
etheric body—unimpeded by the emotional nature or by any lower upsurging desire.

The etheric body is a web of light
energy, impulsed or motivated by the type or the quality of the energies to
which it responds, from the angle of evolutionary development. It might be
stated that:

1. Unevolved or savage man
responds simply to prana or physical energy, vitalising the appetites of the
lower nature, developing the instincts and thus laying the foundation of a
physical vehicle as the outer garment of the soul. At this stage, intellect is
embryonic; the physical appetites and the five senses are dominating factors.
All this is due to the activity of prana as it pours through the etheric or
vital body.

2. Average man is impulsed by
desire which is an energy, emanating from world desire and which—developing or
organising the astral body—generates desire-energy. It pours into the vital
body and galvanises physical man into those activities which will lead to the
satisfaction of desire. This is a parallel process to the work of prana,
impelling the animal instinctive nature into activity. These necessarily
parallel and produce conflict—the first clash (within the man) of the
pair of opposites. Gradually, the pranic energy becomes automatic in its
activity; the shift of the consciousness is into the astral or desire body and
the functioning of the instinctual nature drops below the threshold of the
consciousness. Man then focusses his life in the astral vehicle and his etheric
body becomes animated by the potent inflow of desire-energy.

3. The developed man, with an
integrated personality, gradually brings the etheric body under the control of
mental energy and his physical plane activity is not then so much implemented
by instinct or desire as by thought energy, dedicated to and expressing the
nature of the man's plan. This plan indicates increasingly his intelligent
desire—selfish in the early stages, complex and dualistic in the intermediate
stages but slowly responding to the world plan and to the divine intent for
humanity.

[700]

4. Finally, when the power of
the Triangles (the spiritual name given in The Secret Doctrine to the
soul) is being imposed upon the personality, then their energy supersedes the
other energies and the personality—focussed now in the mind and responsive to
soul impression—expresses upon the physical plane, through the medium of the
physical brain and the body, the intent, potency and nature of the
all-inclusive soul.

The individual etheric web
galvanises the automatic physical body into activity. The energies, controlling
the physical body through the medium of the etheric web, are the four mentioned
above. The conflict in the brain consciousness of the evolving human unit
begins to assume importance when the man starts to recognise these controlling
energies, their source and their effects.

It is immediately obvious
that the work of the disciple is, therefore, almost entirely within the realm
of energy and forces. The study of occultism is the study of forces and of
their origin and effects. An Ashram is a place wherein this study enters the
laboratory or experimental stage. The disciple is supposed to be in process of
becoming aware of the forces and energies which condition him as an individual;
these originate within himself and produce changes and specific effects in his
life-expression upon the physical plane. When he knows himself to be the
"Life and the lives" (as The Secret Doctrine puts it), a sum
total of forces and a controlling energy, then he can be a world disciple and
work significantly in an Ashram.

It will be apparent to you,
therefore, that when a disciple enters into an Ashram and works in closer
relation with his Master than heretofore, he begins to collaborate as far as is
in him with his fellow disciples; then you have (in terms of occultism) a
repetition of the relation between the "Life" of the group (in
this case, the Master) and "the lives" (in this case, the disciples),
of the central energy and the responding forces. From the Master's angle of the
group problem, duality enters into the group expression. He, the central
energy, must work through the forces. From the angle of the disciple, a force
(which is himself) is brought into relation with other forces; [701] it must, at the same time, become responsive to an
energy, that of the Master. This response comes through the recognition of
identity of purpose, of origin and of nature, but not identity in the field of
expression. You can see, therefore, that an Ashram is, indeed, a very vortex of
forces, set in motion by the many types of energy within the ring-pass-not of
the Ashram itself. The basic principles of dualism make themselves felt as the
energy of spirit makes its impact upon soul force and personality force. Forget
not that a Master expresses monadic energy, whilst disciples in His group are
seeking to express soul energy and are doing so, in some measure, through their
love and service. To this soul energy, they add personality force which arises
from their being, as yet, focussed in the personality life, even whilst aspiring
to soul consciousness. Herein lies their usefulness from the Master's point of
view and herein lies their difficulty and—at times—their failure.

Disciples within the Master's
group or the Master's Ashram have a potent effect upon each other, for everything
in their nature is accentuated. The Master has to watch carefully to see that
He does not unduly stimulate the disciples' vehicles through the very fact of
His relation to them.

The individual disciple has,
therefore, to watch the effect of three groups of energies which all make an
impact upon him:

1. Those within his own
nature (physical, emotional and mental) and those which come to him from his
own soul.

2. Those which make an impact
upon him as they come to him from other members of the Ashram or group. This
effect will be dependent upon his being detached where he himself is concerned
and thus responsive to what comes from them. The occult law is that the more
you love the more you can respond to and include the point of view, the nature
and the force of your fellowmen. This is vitally true also of a group of
disciples. What protects most disciples from too great a sensitivity is their
preoccupation with themselves and with their own development.

[702]

3. Those transmuted forces
which come to the disciple from the Master or are definitely transmitted to him
by the Master.

The goal for all work done by
disciples, either in group formation or in the Ashram, is the expression,
within the group, of the causal creative process. This is summed up in the
words which I have already quoted to you "the Life and the lives."
You have the analogous idea and its sequence of effects in the realisation that
the Master (spirit or Monad) reflects Himself in or inspires the disciple
(soul) and the latter is thus enabled to demonstrate soul activity upon the
physical plane.

I would like to consider in
greater detail the nature of a Master's group, sometimes called an Ashram.
It might be valuable if I endeavoured to define an Ashram to you and so leave
you with a clear idea of the difference between a Master's particular group,
and the many outer groups which, though working under His inspiration and upon
the Plan, are not definitely and technically His Ashram.

An Ashram is a subjective
fusion of individuals and not of personalities, gathered together for service
purposes. It is a blending of individual activity into one whole—a whole which
is united on objective and vision but which may (and frequently does) have
differing methods and techniques. The work of the Ashram is essentially the
presentation to the world of those service purposes which are carried forward
as seems best to the individual disciple, under the "impression of the
Master" and with the cooperation of His group. A group of disciples is not
pledged to do the same type of work in the same way and at the same time. They
are pledged to work under the inspiration of their soul, as their souls may
direct and dictate, strengthened by contact with the Master and with each
other. They are related to each other through identity of vision and of
vibration, plus mutual respect and complete freedom—particularly the latter.

As you ponder on this, I
would ask you to realise that an Ashram is not a group of people, working under
the tutelage of some Master. This is an important point to remember. It is—as
said earlier—a magnetic point of tension, a fusion of [703] energies, directed towards a common centre and
involving two magnetic factors:

1. A united urge towards
group formation upon the mental plane. This is the higher correspondence to
the herd instinct of the animal world and of the world of men, but is of a
spiritual nature and quite differently motivated. The lower herd instinct is
motivated largely by the instinct of self-preservation; the higher by the
recognition of the immortal nature of the soul, and by the instinct to serve
even with the sacrifice of oneself. The law of "death unto life"
controls. When the magnetic pull of the group is adequately strong, then comes
the death of the personality life. Until, therefore, the group of disciples in
all its parts expresses this outgoing sacrificial urge, it is not an Ashram.

2. The magnetic pull of
the positive centre at the very heart of the group; that means the magnetic
pull of the Master. As you well know, theoretically at least, at the centre of
the Ashram stands ever the Master, or else an initiate or a world disciple. His
task is to blend and fuse the energies, tendered and proffered by the group
(under the urge to serve) and to indicate the field of service. The mode of
this instinctual activity is called occult obedience and this is voluntarily
rendered and unitedly followed. When any group—working in this way under a
Master—is moved by one spiritual impulse and functions through one firm
organisation (like electrons around the positive nucleus in an atom), the
potency of the group will become immediately effective and not before.

I would at this point
indicate to you that the so-called inner Ashram is to the outer group what the
soul and its vision is to the individual disciple, working in his personality
vehicles. It is the place of interior resort. Disciples can, therefore,
grasp their growth towards fusion as an Ashram (in process of physical
exteriorisation) by the development of their spiritual recognition of the inner
group potency and their facility to contact the Master—both as individuals or
in group formation.

One of the things which a
Master has to do is to teach His disciples to study and register truthfully
their usual point of [704] daily focus. This
constitutes the true introspective training, and when followed sanely and
wisely leads to the realisation of the true, persistent, inner level of
consciousness; it fosters also a recognition of the need to overcome limitation
(frequently not the limitations usually registered) and the necessity for
breaking the barriers imposed by the personality. This whole process might be
summed up in the following words: The purpose of the Ashram and the training
which it gives is to enable the disciple to live truly on every plane which he
has succeeded in opening up to his consciousness. It is important to remember
that no one is integrated into an Ashram until he has pierced beyond the confines
of the purely personal levels of awareness; until he is sensitive to the ray
and quality of the Master of the Ashram, and until he is normally soul
conscious. The achievement of this involves great responsibility, and it is the
shouldering of this responsibility which brings about the first indications of
what I might call "ashramic consciousness"—a consciousness devoid of
self-interest and always preoccupied with the essentials of spiritual living.

The primary preoccupation of
chelas at the beginning of their technical training is of a very varied nature
and the Ashram life is usually merely an interesting background for daily
experience and not the factor of importance which it should be, and not the
main interest in the foreground of the consciousness. The necessities of daily
living, the many and diverse family contacts, the resentments against life and
its impacts, a dislike of criticism and of being misunderstood, the many
problems of character, the pressures of psychic unfoldment and the pettinesses
of circumstance frequently loom so large that awareness of the Ashram and its
life is only an occasional inspiration instead of a fixed habit of life. The
ability to make comparisons to the detriment of others (particularly of one's
own fellow disciples or of one's own circumstances), the fear to let go and
throw all one is and has into the life of the Ashram, foreboding as to the
future and a host of mental thoughtforms, plus undue attention to the cyclic
life of the physical body, present the Master with an appalling picture of the
liabilities with which He is confronted. The factor of the attitude of the
Master is one which disciples are very [705] apt to
forget because they are so basically interested in themselves and in their
reactions and problems.

It might here be noted that disciples
in an Ashram are primarily occupied with world affairs. As a group they are
pledged to world work; as individuals, they are learning so to work. Would-be
disciples need to distinguish between the effect (magnetic and dynamic) of the
group and the conscious effort which the group may make, under united desire
and the direction of the Master, to reach the minds of those directing world
affairs and world happenings. The outer happenings are, to a certain point, predictable;
they are the precipitated effects of hidden causes which lie deep in the
subconsciousness of humanity. These can be noted and (up to a certain point)
offset or stimulated by the group potency. This is one of the major tasks of
the Hierarchy. The Masters work in the light and in the realm of causes.
Disciples are as yet necessarily involved in the world of effects and,
therefore, of illusion. To work dominantly with the focal points of spiritual
energy upon the outer plane immediately involves certain factors:

1. A deep unerring love which
"sees" in the light. Love is truly the revealer.

2. The power to withdraw
completely, as individuals and as a group, from the world of physical
reactions, emotional biases, and to work purely on mental levels. There the
disciple is focussed in his lower mind, but consciously oriented towards the
soul and is becoming increasingly sensitive to the intuition and towards the
vision and the Plan, as well as towards the group soul and to the Master—all in
this order of response.

3. Next follows the power, as
a group, to formulate the desired thought-effect in such a manner that it will
reach the mind or the soul of those you seek to contact, to project the
thoughtform, built in such a way that it will be of the type and quality needed
to evoke response, and so meet the need of those the disciple is seeking to
help and strengthen. The projected thoughtform will embody the light and love,
as well as the idea of the group in conformity with group vision.

[706]

For how many is this kind of
work possible? Not many, as yet. Disciples are usually more preoccupied with
their desire to help than with the scientific techniques of helping. They need
to take the desire for granted and then forget about it. I would ask all disciples
at this time to make it their major effort to see the vision clear; to
recognise, and know for what they are, those who are in high position, guiding
humanity and whose responsibility it is to lead humanity out of slavery into
freedom. Aid them with love because they are where they are through their
individual destiny and the guidance of their souls. Life must be seen truly and
faced as it is—not realistically from the world standpoint but realistically
from the standpoint of the soul, whose vision is long and inclusive and who
sees life as it is.

The acceptance of facts is
one of the first duties of a disciple. In the task of aiding humanity, as a
part of the Master's group or Ashram, the fact that there are men and women
placed in positions of power to carry out the divine plan is one of the first
to be faced. This must be done uncritically, avoiding constant recognition of
their limitations, with an understanding of their problem, with realisation of
the call of their souls to yours and the pouring upon them of a constant stream
of "loving understanding." They are more advanced disciples than you
are—little as this may be realised. They are—consciously or unconsciously—under
the "impression" of the Masters; there is little that the average
disciple can do for them in moulding their thought or in shaping their
decisions. I refer of course to the leaders of the Forces of Light upon the
outer physical plane. But disciples and aspirants can surround them with a
guarding wall of light and love; they can refrain from handicapping them with
thoughts of criticism which can swell the tide of criticism which the worldly
minded pour out upon them. As to attempting to reach and influence the leaders
of the forces of materialism, I would ask you to refrain. It can more easily be
done because the personality of the disciple will provide an open door of
approach. But they are far stronger than the average disciple and the task
would, therefore, be one of extreme danger.

[707]

In the Aquarian Age (which is
now so near, relatively speaking), there will be an externalisation of the
inner Ashram upon the outer plane. Disciples, initiates and world disciples
will meet for the first time in human history as disciples, recognising
each other and recognising the Master of their group. The inner Ashram is a
focus of souls, free and unlimited; the outer Ashram—under the future Aquarian
experiment—will be composed of a focus of personalities and souls. Limitation
will, therefore, exist; responsibility will require conscious recognition and
there will be a necessary slowing down of both action and perception in the
outer space-time world.

The true Ashram (of which the
coming outer Ashrams will be but reflections) is not for lower concrete mind
discussion. It is a focal point of receptivity; it embraces the effort
to establish mutual contact through an united recognition of the vision, of the
esoteric basis of life and the laws governing action. It is not a place,
however, for long and silent meditation processes, for it is a point of tension
where, together, the Ageless Wisdom in its more esoteric aspects is discussed,
where the nature of soul relationship is recognised and where the fusion of
auras and the inter-blending of the "Triangles" goes forward consciously.
An Ashram is the state of mind of a spiritual group. It is a point of united
thought; it is a centre for the clarification of the vision and not of physical
plane methods of work. As disciples learn to integrate themselves into a
Master's Ashram, they discover that the first thing they have to do is to
establish a basic harmony between themselves and their fellow disciples and to
reinforce the contact between their own souls, the ashramic group and the
Master. Then they learn to comprehend—through discussion and experiment—the nature
of the energies which are seeking world expression, and the nature of the
forces which must be reduced to powerlessness, if these new incoming energies
are to prove effective in bringing about the desired changes under the Plan.

They learn also that there is
no weakness and no strength in themselves, as individuals, which may not be
submitted to the group "gaze"; thus they arrive at the stripping away
of all the "veils" which prevent the clear light of the soul from
shining [708] forth. The goal of all work done in the Ashram of any
of the Masters is Truth—on all levels and at all times. As disciples
learn thus to work from the point or centre of light, understanding and truth
into which they are being steadily integrated, their exoteric usefulness and
effective service will be greatly increased; they will—as a group—know what has
to be done and find eventually that it is done.

The major task of the Master
in the early stages of training His disciple is to bring to an end the period
of the disciple's intense preoccupation with himself, with his service, with
his reaction to the Master or the promise of future contact with the Master,
with his own ideas anent discipleship and his personal interpretations of
truth. The Master takes a group of people with fixed ideas (which they are
entirely sure are correct, being the best and highest they have been able to
grasp to date) and with the conviction that they have reached a point where
they have registered certain spiritual values and concepts, where they have
evolved their own formulations of truth and where they are eagerly demanding
the next step. The first thing, therefore, which He has to do is (using a
strong and perhaps a strange phrase) to blast them wide open, give them a deep
sense of insecurity as to the formulas and symbols of the lower concrete mind
and so prepare them for the reception of newer and higher approaches to truth.
This is frequently brought about by forcing them to question all the
conclusions of the past.

We have all—disciples and initiates
of all degrees—to enter the secret place of initiation with a sense of
blindness (or loss of direction) and with a feeling of complete destitution.
The disciple needs to bear in mind that he has to become "a moving point
and hence a line"; he ascends towards the Hierarchy and assumes the
correct spiritual attitude but, at the same time, he descends into what he
erroneously regards as the depth of human difficulty and iniquity (if
necessary), preserving always his spiritual integrity but learning three
important lessons:

1. The recognition that he
shares all human tendencies, good and bad, and hence is able to serve.

2. The discovery that the
thing which he most despises and fears is the thing which exists most strongly
in him, but [709]
which is as yet unrecognised. He
discovers also that he has to explore and know these despised and feared areas
of consciousness so that they become eventually an asset, instead of something
to be avoided. He learns to fear nothing; he is all things; he is a human being
but he is also a mystic, an occultist, a psychic and a disciple. And—because of
all these acquired states of consciousness—he becomes eventually a Master. He
has "mastered" all stages and states of awareness.

3. The uselessness of past
attitudes and dogmatic ways of looking at life and people (based usually on
tradition and circumstance) when they separate him from his fellowmen.

When he has really learnt
these three things, he is initiate.

PART IV

As we study the various
stages in discipleship through which all must pass, we shall discover that one
of the things which happens is the irradiation of the daily life. This
irradiation emanates from the world of meaning in which the disciple is
learning to live consciously and always. One of the problems with which the
Master is engaged in relation to His group of disciples is to teach them the
deep significance of the familiar and also the importance of the truths which
underlie all platitudes. This is perhaps the most difficult task of all because
of the habitual reaction to the familiar and the need to do two things: Prove
that the familiar veils an important reality and that by penetrating to the
"world of meaning," the disciple discovers that he can enter into the
first stage of the period of preparation for accepted discipleship.

The first stage which we must
study is that of "Little Chelaship." In dealing with this stage, as
with them all, I would remind you that I am approaching the subject from the
angle of what the Master has to do, and not from the angle of the disciple's
work. There has been so much written on that subject from the angle of the
disciple and so many books put out on the subject that familiarity with the
theme militates against true apprehension. The effort to understand has been
focussed upon the disciple and his problems of character and personality.

[710]

It will not be possible for
me to indicate the work in detail. I intend only to show you as far as is
possible how a Master prepares the probationer to step from off the
Probationary Path on to the Path of Discipleship. At this point, I would like
to point out that I shall be dealing with a period covering the stages of
discipleship from the first stage to that of adept. At the fourth stage, the
disciple emerges out of his Master's group and becomes what is esoterically
called "a fixed aspect of the Hierarchy." This is a phrase which is
necessarily quite meaningless to you. He comes then under the influence of Shamballa
and the mode of preparing people for association with that first major centre
is very different to that of preparing them for participation in the work of
the centre which we call the Hierarchy. The one involves the development of
love and of group consciousness; the other involves the unfoldment of the will
and the attainment of the stage to which Patanjali gives the name of
"isolated unity." This is a phrase which is quite meaningless to any
one below the degree of the third initiation. In this discussion, I shall not
be dealing with preparation for the various initiations and their specific
differences. I shall be dealing with the growth of what is called
"ashramic intimacy," with the approach of the disciple to the world
of souls and to the unfoldment of his consciousness in relation to the
Hierarchy. I shall be concerned with his growth in sensitivity and his
subsequent and consequent growth in creativity—not the creativity of form as
much as the creativity of vibration, its impact upon the world of men and the
consequent later appearance of responsive organisms, in
contra-distinction to created forms. I would ask you to reflect upon this
thought.

This growth in sensitivity is
difficult to understand. The members of a Master's group and of His Ashram have
to become increasingly sensitive—sensitive to the Master and to His pledged
workers. You cannot be made sensitive or be rendered sensitive by some type of
process or ordered training. Men and women are sensitive, only they do
not know it, being so preoccupied with outer matters, with form life and
objective things. Let me put it this way: What you say to yourself and to
others—through your spoken words or your life—is so noisy that it is not easy
to be what you are and to be recognised as a [711] spiritual
being. The Master is guided by what He knows of you in your quiet moments of
aspiration, by what you have demonstrated for years to be your fixed life
tendency and by the manner in which you react at moments of crisis or tension.
The task of the Master is to stimulate the disciple to be at all times what He
knows him to be at his highest times. That is a simple and almost childish way
of putting it but it serves to express the general idea. A Master does this
because the need of the world for decentralised, forward-looking, loving and
intelligent workers is so great, particularly at this time. Many have reached
the point where they may become sensitive if the loud assertions of personality
are dimmed and the light of the soul is permitted to pour through. Then the
Master can be known and contacted. When you can get away from yourselves and
your personal reactions, your own interpretations, and your personal demands,
you will discover for yourselves how and in what manner the Master is seeking
to impress you and the group with which you may be affiliated. You will become
sensitive to that impression. You can then facilitate (as it is called) the
activity of the Master by a profound and deep interest in the esoteric life to
the exclusion of your own and also of the Master's individuality. There are
many ways which can then be revealed which will aid the interplay between you,
the disciple, and the Master.

As all the rays are the
subrays of the second ray, we shall be primarily concerned with the second ray
modes of working with disciples; they form the basis of all the other
techniques. The differences which may appear lie in the application of
processes according to ray type and the utilisation of emphasis upon
certain centres. Again, I would ask you to ponder on this phrase because it
contains much information for those who can bring the light of the intuition to
bear upon it. I shall be dealing with the relation of a Master and His group to
the individual disciple and not so much with the attitudes and procedures of
the disciple. This, you will note is a somewhat new slant.

Basically and essentially,
the disciple's attitude is not really of much importance in comparison with
the effect of the Hierarchy and its techniques upon him. The results are [712] inevitable, because they are dependent upon two
important factors:

1. The first factor is that
directed, hierarchical impression is not imposed until the man has fitted
himself through self-discipline to respond to it and is, therefore, nearing the
end of the Path.

2. The second is the factor
of group response. This means response in two directions:

a. To sensed human need,
leading consequently to a pledged life of service.

b. To soul impression,
leading to spiritual sensitivity.

When these two factors are
established—even if unknown to the disciple in his waking consciousness—the
grip of the soul upon the personality becomes irrevocable. Then, and only then,
the Master can begin to work and the response will be effective, real and
lasting.

Now let me enumerate for you
again the stages with which we shall be dealing:

1. The stage wherein the
disciple is contacted by the Master through some chela upon the physical plane.
This is the stage of Little Chelaship.

2. The stage wherein a higher
disciple directs the chela from egoic or soul levels. This is the stage called
a Chela in the Light.

3. The stage wherein,
according to necessity, the Master contacts the chela through:

a. A vivid dream experience.

b. A symbolic teaching.

c. The using of a thoughtform
of some Master.

d. A contact with the Master
in meditation.

e. A definite, remembered
interview with the Master in His Ashram.

This is definitely the stage
of Accepted Discipleship.

4. The stage wherein, having
shown his wisdom in work and his appreciation of the Master's problem, the
disciple is taught how (in an emergency) to attract the Master's attention and
thus draw upon His strength and knowledge and advice. This is an instantaneous
happening [713]
and practically takes none of the
Master's time. This has the peculiar name of the Chela on the Thread, or
Sutratma.

5. The stage wherein the
disciple is permitted to know the method whereby he may set up a vibration or a
call which will entitle him to an interview with the Master. This is only
permitted to those trusted chelas who can be depended upon not to use their
knowledge for anything except the need of the work. No personality reason or
distress would prompt them to use it. At this stage, the disciple is called a Chela
within the aura.

6. The stage wherein the
disciple can get his Master's ear at any time. He is in close touch always.
This is the stage wherein a chela is being definitely and consciously prepared
for immediate initiation, or—having taken initiation—is being given specialised
work to do in collaboration with his.... At this stage, he is described as the Chela
within the Master's heart.

7. There is a later stage of
still closer identification, where there is a complete blending of the Lights,
but there is no adequate paraphrase of the terms used to convey this name.

I would have you note that
the six stages above mentioned have been translated and paraphrased for
occidental understanding and must in no way be considered as translations of
the ancient terms.

Stage I. Little Chelaship.

This stage is so definitely
exoteric that many people have left it far behind. The first indication that a
man has reached that stage (from the angle of the Master) comes when the
"light flashes out" in some one life; thereby the attention of the
Master is attracted to the person. It might be said that the preface to the
Master's interest falls into four parts and it is only when all four are found
present together and simultaneously that this happens:

1. The aspirational intent of
the man upon the physical plane suddenly succeeds in enabling him to make a
soul [714] contact. The moment that that takes place the light in
the head is momentarily intensified.

2. The karmic agitation of
the man's life becomes greatly increased and—apart from his own individual
karma—he, for the first time, consciously takes part in and shoulders a part of
the karma of his group. This dual karmic undertaking sets up a veritable vortex
of force in the group aura. This attracts hierarchical attention.

3. The next point is not so
easy to explain or grasp. You have been told that the soul is in deep meditation
for the greater part of the cycle of lives of any one individual, and that it
is only when a fair measure of personality integration is set up that the
soul's attention is drawn away from its own interior considerations and egoic
affairs to those of its shadow. When this happens, the egoic group is
definitely affected and the Master (upon the same ray as that of the soul
concerned) becomes aware of what is esoterically called "a downward gazing
soul." On the Path of Discipleship, the ego is all the time consciously
aware of the striving personality and there comes a stage when (towards the end
of the Path of Evolution) the soul recapitulates the evolutionary processes of
involution and evolution. Soul energy descends and personality force ascends
and this takes place through a process of conscious descents and ascents. I
refer here to the process which is undertaken by the soul under hierarchical
impulse, and not to that in which the personality invokes the soul under the
desperate need brought about in the lower consciousness by the gradual
cessation of desire.

4. Gradually the antahkarana
is built and in this way the "greater Light and the lesser light" are
consciously related. A path of light and energy is established or created
between these two divine aspects. As time goes on, there appears in the egoic
group what is technically known as the "linking light" or the
"bridging radiance." This is the Path referred to in The Old
Testament as "the path of the just is as a shining light which shineth
more and more until the day be with us." In the esoteric [715] books it is referred to in the following terms:
"Before a man can tread the path, he must become that path himself."

These four stages have been
described in The Old Commentary in the following terms:

"The point of light
shines forth. It waxes and it wanes. The point becomes a line through the
starting of a vortex and from the centre of the whirling force, there comes a
voice—invocative and clear.

The One Who sits in silent
work, alone and unafraid (because the part is not alone and the group is
unafraid) looks down, catches the light, reflects the whirling force and hears
the voice.

Then from the silent point of
power, a Word goes forth: Be still. Be silent. Know that I am God. The needed
work will now begin.

Between the Great One and the
little striving one, communion is established; the interplay begins; the mind
assumes its rightful place. The Path is surely laid."

When the four aspects of
inter-related activity are present, then what might be called "spiritual
habits" begin to form and are steadily established. Their united effect
serves eventually to attract the attention of the Master. The contact is still
too feeble and the grip of the soul upon the personality is still too weak to
warrant the Master Himself doing anything directly with the aspirant. The stage
is one of pure mysticism and of selfish spiritual purpose. The recognition of
group relationship is missing; the knowledge of group inclination is not
present; there is no true, unselfish desire to serve. There is only a vague
desire for personal liberation, for personal integrity and for personal lasting
happiness. This has to be changed into group emancipation, group cohesion and
group joy.

The first stage, therefore,
in the training of such an aspirant is to relate him to a more advanced
disciple who will lead him gradually onward and give him the help he needs. The
reason for this is that the disciple is closer to the aspirant, far from
perfection himself and is also learning to serve. This stage of development
covers the period of occult enquiry and esoteric [716] investigation and usually is spread over several
lives. The aspirant at this stage runs from one teacher to another, according
to inclination, opportunity and necessity. He is an example of instability but
is carefully watched by the disciple who has transcended this particular stage
of volatility; his task is to see that the aspirant escapes from this
"network of futility," as it is sometimes called, and that he gradually
settles down to the later stage of interior investigation.

During all this period, the
Master pays no attention whatsoever to the aspirant. It will be a long time
before the aspirant will be admitted into His presence and make a personal
contact. The chela who is supervising this interim stage reports to the Master
at rare and widely separated intervals; it is only when the aspirant has
reached the point where he "can enter into the light of the Angel,"
that the Master begins to take over his training. The disciple is now,
irrevocably and finally, ready. This takes place at the third stage, that of
Accepted Discipleship.

These stages are all of them
related to one or other of the initiations. This one, called Little Chelaship,
is related to the first initiation. This initiation is connected with the
physical plane and, for a very large number of people (as I have several times
pointed out) lies far behind. All true aspirants have taken the first
initiation. This fact is indicated by their intensive struggle to grow into the
spiritual life, to follow the way of determined orientation to the things of
the spirit and to live by the light of that spirit. I believe that many who
read my words will recognise these determinations as the basic motivation of
their lives. This stage is a correspondence to the process of individualisation
in Lemurian times and the stage of Little Chelaship is sometimes referred to as
the "period of the Lemurian consciousness" leading, through the
Atlantean stage of a Chela in the Light, to the Aryan stage of Accepted
Discipleship. At this stage, the third and real preparation for initiation is
consciously undertaken, because by then integration has been stabilised and the
man is full grown and mature in his consciousness and is ready to subject
himself to hierarchical impression without reservation.

There is no need further to
enlarge upon this preliminary phase, upon the weary, though inspiring path of
discipleship. [717]
Much has been given out to the world
anent this matter with almost undue emphasis upon purification, service and
devotion. The reason that I say this is that they should be assumed to
constitute part of the exoteric life expression of all true aspirants.
They are not esoteric causes but exoteric effects of inner attitudes.

As we continue our studies on
the Stages of Discipleship, I would point out anew that for the majority of the
aspirants in the world and for highly advanced people with a humanitarian
consciousness, the first stage lies far behind. Many people today are
"accepted disciples" and that is, as you well know, the third stage,
and behind them, therefore, lie three experiences:

1. The stage of "Little
Chelaship"—elementary, testing and disturbing. It is sometimes spoken of
as the "stage wherein the roots of the man-plant are shaken; the stage in
which they (up till now embedded) are loosened and air and light disturb the
peace of ages. This is the peace of death, the age of stone, the tomb of
life."

2. The stage of "Chela
in the Light." About this stage I am now going to speak.

3. The first initiation. This
initiation ever precedes the stage of accepted discipleship. No Master accepts
a disciple and takes him into His ashram in whom the birth of the Christ has
not taken place. Saul must become Paul, as the Christian phraseology puts it.
The babe within the womb of time emerges into the world of men and, from the
standpoint of complete identification with matter (the mother), he becomes
himself and seeks consciously to tread the ways of life and to become what he
is. This is an esoteric repetition of the physical process of becoming a
separate individual. Between the stages of "isolated individuality"
and "isolated unity" lies one to which the name of "isolated
identity" is given. It is with this stage we are concerned and its esoteric
implications. Isolated unity describes the stage which the Master has reached;
isolated individuality is that of the disciple; isolated identity (with the
soul) is that of the disciple up to and including the third initiation.

a. Isolated unity is the
consummation of the Aryan [718] consciousness.
Isolated identity is related to the Atlantean consciousness, from the angle of
the higher correspondence.

b. Isolated unity is
connected with the mental plane, is governed by the fifth Ray of Concrete
Knowledge or Science, and is a reflection of the will-to-know. Isolated
identity is connected with the astral plane, is governed by the sixth Ray of
Devotion or Idealistic Sensitivity and is a reflection—distorted and
unstable—of the will-to-love. Isolated individuality is connected with
expression upon the physical plane, is governed by the third Ray of Active
Intelligence, and is a reflection—again distorted and unsure—of the will-to-be.

On the buddhic plane, the
plane of the divine intuition, these lower three expressions and their higher
prototypes are harmonised and the expansive work of the three initiations
(second, third and fourth) produces an absorption, a fusion and a blending
process between the disciple and the soul (and eventually between humanity and
the Hierarchy) which prepares for a major contact between man and the Monad.
When this takes place, the soul, creator of reflection and shadow, is discarded
because that point of consciousness has served its purpose. The shattering of
the causal body takes place and nought is then left but fully conscious form
and spirit. Until, however, man has taken the higher initiations, he cannot
comprehend the significance of the above comments.